Ikram Kouachi
07 February 2025•Update: 08 February 2025
ANKARA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that Palestinians should establish their state in Saudi Arabia rather than in their own homeland dismissing any notion of Palestinian sovereignty.
"The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there,” Netanyahu said on Thursday during an interview with Israeli Channel 14 disregarding the long-standing Palestinian demands for self-determination.
When asked whether a Palestinian state was necessary for normalization with Saudi Arabia, he rejected the idea outright framing it as a “security threat to Israel.”
“Especially not a Palestinian state. After Oct. 7? Do you know what that is? There was a Palestinian state, it was called Gaza. Gaza, led by Hamas, was a Palestinian state and look what we got," he claimed, ruling out the creation of a Palestinian state yet again.
Netanyahu also spoke about potential normalization with Saudi Arabia predicting an imminent agreement.
"I think peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only feasible, I think it's going to happen," he said.
However, the Saudi Foreign Ministry had dismissed Netanyahu’s narrative reiterating that normalization with Israel was off the table unless a Palestinian state was established -- a stance Netanyahu continues to disregard.
The interview took place while Netanyahu was in Washington, DC, where he appeared alongside US President Donald Trump at a joint press conference.
During the event, Trump said the US would “take over” Gaza and resettle Palestinians elsewhere under an extraordinary redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
He doubled down on his proposal Thursday and said no US soldiers would be needed.
The proposal has been widely condemned by world leaders.
